Finca La Media Legua** These rustic apartments are situated in heart of a hundred-year-old chestnut forests, within Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche Natural Park. From the estate you can follow trails into the surrounding countryside that lead to places such as Aracena and Los Marines. On these routes you can appreciate the magnificent surrounding landscapes. More information. places to stay

RecommendedGuided tour around Spain
From the galleries and wild nightlife of Madrid, to the Muslim monuments, flamenco and vibrant culture of Andalucia, to the architecture, cuisine and cool style of Barcelona. Spain is sure not to disappoint.

Clay soils in parts of the Monegros are eroded easily leaving weird sandstone formations called torrellones, looking like something straight out of Arizona. This one is called Cabeza de Perro, Dog’s Head. Image by Rodriguem on Wikicommons

The lammergeyer or bearded vulture is continuing to recover in Aragón, its Iberian stronghold, with 90 pairs recorded in 2017, up from less than 40 in the 1980s. More here Chicks from Aragón are to be taken to teh Picos de Europa to help in the reintroduction project there. Here

The Pyrenees, according to Greek mythology at least, take their name from Pyrene, daughter of King Bebrycius who was raped by Hercules, after which she gave birth to a serpent. Terrified by how her father would react, Pyrene fled to these hills, where she was torn apart by wild animals. Hercules later came upon her […]

Tucked up a side street around the corner from the theatre, Bellver is about as far away from Palma’s gleaming 21st- century tapas bars as it’s possible to imagine. Dark and shadowy, with shelves lined with dusty bottles and wine barrels, and rickety wooden tables scattered around the small space, it is steeped in history, atmosphere and the smell of spicy pork frying on the tiny grill beside the bar. Order up icy beers and pinchos and settle into a slice of unchanged Mallorquin life.

Trekking in the Sierra Nevada in June
I enjoyed this post on the iberianatureforum by Maria:
Outside the tapas bars of Lanjaron temperatures reached 30 degrees. 2500m above we donned our duvet jackets as an icy wind tore across the white snow filled plateau. Such are the contrasts this year in southern Spain’s Sierra Nevada, a legacy of the worst winter weather in living memory.
Read the original story here:

Pork and its by-products may be the most emblematic food of the county, but Osona has much else to offer gastronomes. The truffle (trufa), a black mushroom that grows underground and is highly prized, and a wide range of bolets (Catalan mushrooms) including pinetell, rovelló, rossinyol, cep and fredolic are found locally, as are the white beans (mongetes) of the Collsacabra Mountains, characterised by their small size. For dessert, the pa de pessic de Vic (sponge cake) is worth trying as are the regional cheeses, curds, honey and jam.

High in the Parque Natural Sierra María-Los Vélez in northern Almería a new and cultural weapon has been unveiled to combat the hearts and minds of those not convinced that urgent action needs to be taken to preserve our landscape, flora and fauna. More...

Teruel bat
Detail of modernist forge of the Staircase of the Paseo del Óvalo. The monumental staircase was built in 1921 to link the new railway station with the old part of the city. The work has modernist and neomudejar details. By SantiMB on Flickr

Here are a few words and expressions in Castilian Spanish that don’t exist in English, and perhaps could be borrowed. Foreigners speakers of Spanish in Spain certainly use so of them with alarming frequency with other English speakers in Spain, as do our Spanish friends and spouses. The list does not include food terms (covered […]

I picked up this interesting list of facts about bullfighting from The Guardian here. Bullfighting was at first seen as an exclusively aristocratic pursuit for Spanish noblemen who remained seated on horseback. In 1726, the matador Francisco Romero was the first to challenge the bull on foot. He also introduced the famous red cape (muleta) […]

The Old Woman Cooking Eggs was painted by Diego Velázquez during his Seville period possibly in 1618, and like in much of his work early poor and working class characters are portrayed. Like other early works by the artist, it shows the influence of chiaroscuro, with a strong light source coming in from the left, […]

This blog, Notes from Spain, was the first piece of a puzzle in an unlikely chain of events that led my wife, Marina, and I to leave our jobs and work full time on our kitchen-table podcasting business, Notes in Spanish, that has been going for over 10 years and has had over 31 million […]